Science and technology

Computational studies of the primary phototransduction event in visual rhodopsin

Article Abstract:

A prototypical G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) is responsible for the signal transmission cascade in the vertebrate vision process. The problems related to assembly and function of the individual residues and bound water molecules that form the rhodopsin active site, a center that catalyzes the 11-cis/all-transfection isomerization of the retinyl chromophore in the primary step of the phototransduction mechanism is studied.

Nanoparticle interaction with biological membranes is analyzed using cytosolic enzyme leakage assays, dye diffusion assays and fluorescence microscopy. The results indicate that the important features of the nanoparticles related to membrane disruption, size and charge are common to nanoparticles used in a wide variety of applications.